What was the heaviest payload that you launched to orbit?

[AHHans]

The title says it all: how heavy was the biggest payload that you launched into Kerbin orbit in a single launch? Including transfer stages to other planets or moons or the full weight of SSTOs in orbit, but not including more or less empty booster stages that get dropped before the payload goes on to whatever it is doing?

For me that was 304 t, one half of a massive space station. Together with the other half and fully fueled up it's 1328 t.

[Bej Kerman]

I failed to make a 1000t lifter, then I proceeded to accidentally make a reusable 1000t lifter. Don't ask me how this managed to happen.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Bej Kerman

[AHHans]

5 minutes ago, Bej Kerman said:

Don't ask me how this managed to happen.

O.K. I won't!

[steuben]

I've got a design, the Bell series, that's rated to lift 1kt to a 1000km x 1000km. It could probably lift a bit more up there, and a fair bit more to something lower. But, I haven't tested it in the latest versions.

 

[swjr-swis]

1 hour ago, AHHans said:

The title says it all: how heavy was the biggest payload that you launched into Kerbin orbit in a single launch?

Off the top of my head, a massive pre-assembled station of 2600-2700t. I can't seem to find the screenshots, has to be in an older KSP version I already archived.

Next to that, I flung a 2077t 'fuel star' into LKO. Just one of those tinker projects in the VAB that got out of hand, and then I liked the end result, and then Jeb wanted one in orbit, and then I spent the entire night trying to get a working lifter.

I only vaguely remember what all happened that night, but much later while cleaning up the screenshot folder I found a bunch of screenshots, and decided to document the whole thing.

Spoiler

Link to full imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/KtV09

[Starman4308]

Does it count if I've launched 100 tons to Earth orbit?

There's also one bloody lunatic on the RO Discord who managed to launch a fully fueled Saturn V to LEO with a launcher I can only describe as "why".

I suspect you'll see a pretty bimodal distribution here: people who built giant launchers for the sake of building giant launchers, and people who build the launchers they need... and there's only so much payload one can reasonably need. There will be those who legitimately need giant launchers for insane payloads, but I imagine most of us don't try to launch gigantic space stations to low solar orbit.

Emphasis on "most". I'm looking at you Stratenblitz75.

And no, a fully fueled Saturn V is not a payload one might reasonably need in LEO.

[Superfluous J]

I have no idea the orbital mass, and don't know (but can find out) the launchpad mass, but I'm pretty sure my biggest launch ever was my original Joolpollo launch back in 0.23.5 (I think)

I doubt it breaks any records though.

[Guest]

I voted 200-300 tons before I read your description (includes mass of SSTOs). I used a really big spaceplane to loft a test load about that big into orbit once. 

In career games I extremely rarely go over 100 tons. I like my craft small.

[AHHans]

8 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

I have no idea the orbital mass, and don't know (but can find out) the launchpad mass,

Well, if you still have the craft file then just remove all the stages that get detached during ascent and, if needed, remove some of the fuel from the transfer stage that would be needed to circularize. This isn't about precision, but about getting an idea what people are up to.

45 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

I voted 200-300 tons before I read your description (includes mass of SSTOs).

Well, my space-plane SSTOs are not meant to transport craft into orbit, but are the spacecraft on their own. (In particular my person shuttle to rotate crew from and to the space stations in the Kerbin system.) So if your big SSTO  was only meant to put a payload into orbit and it cannot go further than LKO it's really up to you if you want to include that. Hmmm... well, if your SSTO was a mission like the Spacelab missions of the Space Shuttle (i.e. the mission was to only be in LEO or LKO), then the full orbit mass of the SSTO counts.

52 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

In career games I extremely rarely go over 100 tons.

Same here. But not really because I try to keep my craft small (I don't believe in making artificially big craft either), but because if a craft gets big, then I launch it without most of the fuel and refuel in orbit. (With ore mined on Minmus.)

9 hours ago, Starman4308 said:

Does it count if I've launched 100 tons to Earth orbit?

Well, it is hard to compare stuff launched into Earth orbit to stuff launched into Kerbin orbit. The kind of missions that you do in a RO/RSS game are necessarily different than what you do in a stock game.

So should a 100t LEO craft count as 100t or as more? Or less? 100t because your goal was to only have 100t in orbit. More, because you needed a much bigger launcher to get it into orbit. Or even less, because you just wanted to go to Mars and for getting the same science payload to Duna you only need a much smaller craft.

[Superfluous J]

2 hours ago, AHHans said:

if you still have the craft file

I don't even have the save, or the install any more. What I do have is a video and I probably had KER Windows up. I'll watch it when I can.

[q2dota]

When in doubt ... add more boosters ....

2000t Lifter ... still going steady at 2FPS/min in 1.9 ... https://imgur.com/a/cNeDGKf

[TheFlyingKerman]

My biggest single launch was about 42t for an Eve lander/ascend probe (then fully fueled up to 65t)

[AHHans]

14 hours ago, q2dota said:

2000t Lifter ...

7 hours ago, TheFlyingKerman said:

My biggest single launch was about 42t

Hmmm... does that count as the biggest contrast here?

 

[cantab]

I don't know the mass. But I built "Jeb's Tylo Lander" which was single stage and powered by four Rhinos. It had additional drop tanks to get it out to Tylo in the first place. I then built a refueller capable of filling up the whole thing in one go, and I think that might still be my mass record.

[Norcalplanner]

My most impressive lifter got 832 tons to orbit.

Around Earth in RSS/RO.

Two words - Nova Heavy. 

[Starhawk]

In 0.90 I sent three kerbals down to Eve's surface and home again in a Mk 1-2 command pod.

The craft in orbit was close to 1300 tonnes.

The mass on the pad of the whole thing was almost 9000 tonnes.

The Eve lander was 737 tonnes.

Happy landings!

 

[KerikBalm]

On 2/13/2020 at 9:24 AM, Brikoleur said:

I voted 200-300 tons before I read your description (includes mass of SSTOs). I used a really big spaceplane to loft a test load about that big into orbit once. 

Heck, if dry mass of the launcher counts too... My standard cargo sstos for 3x kerbin already have dry masses of around 200 tons, and take like 150 tons of real payload

[AlamoVampire]

My largest was well over 1 kilo ton.

[Deddly]

4 hours ago, AlamoVampire said:

My largest was well over 1 kilo ton.

As in 1000 t in weight in explosive potential?

Seriously, how did you get that to orbit?

 

As for me, I have always preferred smaller designs, so my maximum is probably less than 100 t.

[Dirkidirk]

On 2/12/2020 at 7:16 PM, Starman4308 said:

There's also one bloody lunatic on the RO Discord who managed to launch a fully fueled Saturn V to LEO with a launcher I can only describe as "why".

how

[Dman979]

Obviously, none of you have ever seen a @Whackjob creation. Do yourself a favor, and see how an insane mechanical engineer would play KSP!

[linuxgurugamer]

I think my biggest was about 30 kilotons on the pad.  It was a mission to rescue a pilot stuck in a retro solar orbit; I needed to have something in excess of 50,000 dVin orbit to do the mission.  Was actually two launches  one was about 30kton, the second was about 25kton, docked, refueled and went on its way.

Edited February 19, 2020 by linuxgurugamer

[swjr-swis]

4 hours ago, linuxgurugamer said:

in excess of 50,000 DC

You know you've launched something *really* heavy when it warped time into an entirely new era...

[linuxgurugamer]

1 hour ago, swjr-swis said:

You know you've launched something *really* heavy when it warped time into an entirely new era...

Mobile likes to make odd spelling "corrections"

[Rocket Witch]

1466.47t while experimenting with SpaceY's 7.5m parts. Note external reinforcement of the stage; square cube law hits hard at the kiloton scale.

And then SpaceY got 10m parts. I still haven't touched those!